Twitter’s N.B.A. Draft Oracle

Last night, at 7:37 Eastern Standard Time, Adrian Wojnarowski, an irascible N.B.A. reporter who looks like a middle-aged Harry Potter, if Harry had gone to journalism school instead of Hogwarts and traded wizardry for too many nights at the Holiday Inn in San Antonio, tweeted, “The Cleveland Cavaliers will select Andrew Wiggins with the No. 1 pick in the N.B.A. Draft, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.” About a minute later, at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, the N.B.A. commissioner, Adam Silver, walked up to a podium: “With the first pick in the 2014 N.B.A. draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select Andrew Wiggins.” Two minutes later, Woj, as he’s known in N.B.A. media circles, beat the commissioner again. “The Milwaukee Bucks will select Jabari Parker with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft, league source tells Yahoo Sports.”

In response, Twitter user @coreymaurice kindly pleaded, “Can y’all not leak the picks.” But Woj charged on. By the end of the draft, he had scooped nearly all sixty of the picks, never by much more than a minute before the commissioner officially announced them.

Woj does this every year. For people watching the draft and following along on social media, the effect can be maddening, akin to someone rattling off spoilers as you watch your favorite television show.

“Kramer is about to burst through Jerry’s door.”

On the TV, Kramer bursts through Jerry’s door.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Doing my job. Kramer’s about to show Jerry this statue he made out of fusilli.”

“Why do I keep inviting you over?”

“This has always been your choice, dude. By the way, George is about to tell a joke about Wilt Chamberlain and the ASSMAN vanity plates.”

“I wish I could quit you, Woj.”

When I worked at ESPN, one of the two networks that broadcast the draft every year, there was an unsubstantiated rumor going around that Woj spoiled picks to settle some longstanding beef with the self-appointed Worldwide Leader in Sports. His employer, Yahoo Sports, certainly has an incentive to continually preëmpt the live coverage and, although many, myself included, howl with outrage every time he spoils a pick, few actually take the initiative to mute or unfollow Woj, or, for God’s sake, to shut off Twitter.

Perhaps in an attempt to neutralize the Woj disruption, ESPN’s own Chad Ford has also started tweeting picks in advance. At 8:35 last night, Ford seemed to have beaten Woj to the punch: “The Philadelphia 76ers take Dario Saric with the No. 10 pick in the draft.”

Woj stayed quiet. Onstage, Silver announced that the 76ers, in fact, had selected Elfrid Payton, Jr.

@coreymaurice, for his part, had had enough. He tweeted, “STILL LEAKING PICKS!!!”

To avoid all of this, I went to the draft and sat in the stands with a reporter friend of mine. We both had come to find funny and/or colorful scenes (I can report that there were too many Philadelphia fans in the building and that Noah Vonleh, the ninth pick, is extremely tall), but, when Silver walked to the podium to welcome everybody, we both gave in, opened our laptops, and turned on Woj.

The top projected picks at each draft sit at tables near the stage, where they can be surrounded by friends and family. In past years, the players would sit nervously while they waited for their names to be called. Now, they mostly just stare at their phones. Woj rules all.

At some point, my reporter friend looked up from his screen and asked, “Where do you think Woj is?”

“Probably in the tunnels somewhere, texting furiously.”

“Wait, is that him, in the second row of the press area?”

“I think so?”

“That’s definitely him.”

“Should we go down there and watch him up close?”

I am sad to report that we did, in fact, go down there, but Woj could not be reached for comment.